Monthly Archives: May 2009

This is just the best, a classic band with 19 tracks spread over two CDs , this as the title suggests is the third part of a story covering 1970 to 1983. All I really need to say is this is the band that first brought us the talents that are Salif Keita, Mory kante, Sekou Kouyate, Lanfia Diabate and Makan Ganessy, listen to them here and revel in divine, pure music.

First solo CD from cameroon’s rising star who is part of the Bassa ethnic group (originally nomads from Egypt). He grew up surrounded by music, not only Bassa musical traditions but his familys collection of music from Western soul greats like Marvin Gaye. He then moved to Paris in 2005 where he worked with many top African musicians like Manu Dibango. Those influences now unite on ‘Leman’ with the soulfulness of Gaye enriching his African traditional heritage. Great debut.

Third in Strut’s ‘Inspiration Information’ series, this one teams Ethiopian veteran jazzer Mulatu Astatke (star of Ethiopiques series) with UK funky jazzers Heliocentrics. Got a nice feel this one with the Ethiopian jazz groove being embellished by Heliocentrics as it flows along sometimes going off at heavier tangents then others hitting the chilled feel of ‘Blue Nile’ . My pick is the funky percussion driven ‘Live From Tigre Lounge’ . Excellent.

Anyone who has witnessed Sonny Rollins in a live context will testify to his continued charisma and prowess and this collection of live perofrmances spanning almost thirty years is an excellent resume of an artist still in top form in the twilight period of his career. The variety of formats ranges from pared down trio to sextet including guitar, percussion and trombone. Rollins cut some of the definitive statements on the tenor saxophnoe during the mid-late 1950s, several of which were trio outings. A highlight of this set is 2007 concert at the Carnegie Hall on the Rodgers and Hammerstein old chestnut ‘Some enchanted evening’, most ably accompanied by the great Roy Haynes on drums and Christian McBride on bass. An entire concert of this line up would be a treat. Calypsos have long been a favourite of the Rollins repertoire and and integral part of his heritage and the self-penned ‘Nice lady is not dissimilar to the seminal ‘St. Thomas’ from his classic ‘Saxophone Colossus’ album in 1956. Latin tinges surface on performances of the sextet in Sweden from 1980, notably on ‘Blossom’. The historical context to the live recordings is provided by excellent sleeve notes from renowned jazz writer Gary Giddens. An excellent place for Rollins neophytes to start discovering the immense legacy the tenorist has left on record and on this evidence he has still has more to give to the ever appreciative jazz public.

Now 70 and back with his first collection of new tracks since 2004’s To Tulsa and Back. Roll On has 12 tracks including the previously unreleased title track recorded with Eric Clapton. The style of course is the same & we wouldn’t want it any other way great music played and sung in that laid back style but with great integrity and style. Magic.

Their debut, also on the superb Navigator Records, quite rightly received rave reviews, this follow up fittingly sees the trio of Kris Drever, Martin Green and Aidan O’Rourke continue their adventurous approach to traditional folk music bringing to it the vibrancy of their brilliant live shows and a euphoria of song presentation that builds the passion with great musicianship and spirit, they were very good, they keep getting better.

A CD that came about after Richard Blair aka Sidestepper went to Colombia to meet up with Toto La Momposina, he was soon recording local Afro-Colombian artists which in turn developed into this pumping dance floor mix of Colombian, Nigerian and Jamaican styles. Great tracks with my pick probably the 12” mix of La Paloma. Brilliant

This 1965 recording data is notable in in the long Jazz Messenger’s history for the pairing of two trumpeters who epitomised the band’s hard bop sound in the early-mid 1960s: Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan. It is, perhaps, no coincidence that in the same year the pair had recorded in a live setting together for Blue Note on ‘Live at the Cookers’ and their playing is inspired on the studio date contained herein. More surprising is the inclusion of tenorist Lucky Thompson who had played with Blakey in the 1940s. Pianist John Hicks and bassist Victor Sproles complete the line up which does not feature trombonist Curtis Fuller as on the previous ‘’S Make It’ and ‘Indestrutible’ albums from 1964. By far the most immediate track is ‘Buh’s Bossa’, a long time favourite on dancefloors of the jazzdance scene with Blakey providing his own take on the then Brazilian drum beat. A Hubbard composition, ‘The Hub’, is in the classic Messenger’s groove with both trumpeter’s excelling. Hard bop is to the fore on ‘Freedom monday’, an underrated Blakey composition while blues-inflected hues predominate on the title track. While not quite on a par with the fiery playing and universal excellence of the Blue Note albums of the period, ‘Soul Finger’ fills in a useful gap in the Messengers chronology. Moreover, it was the second album for the label after ‘’S Make it’ which included Morgan and Hicks and Sproles, but omitted Thompson in favour of Sun Ra saxophonist John Gilmore. It is a pity these two line ups did not record more frequently together for there was undoubted empathy between them as amply demonstrated here. Messengers devotees will want this album for a key transitional period in the group’s history.

An uplifting festival mood permeates this 1962 live recording from the Juan-les-Pins festival, just along the coast from Nice and one in which the Latin tinge that Gillespie so revered is very much in evidence. From the crescending wave sounds of the intro, ‘No more blues’ was destined to be a classic and the rendition here is arguably the finest ever on record with Gillespie in fine form on trumpet and aided by a lovely piano solo from arranger Lalo Schifrin (who was the brainchild of the ‘Gillespiana’ suite from a couple of years earlier)and various Brazilian percussion. The extended ten minute plus version of ‘Long, long summer’ is played as a cha cha cha with Gillespie and fiery alto saxophonist Leo Wright alternating solos, and Schifrin providing Latin vamps to good effect. Of interest in the band line up is the addition of gipsy guitarist Elek Bacsik who, at this time, was accompanying a young Serge Gainsbourg on his early jazz-flavoured albums. The seldom recorded ‘For the gypsies’ proves to be a revelation with a distinct modal feel and Wright providing a refined flute solo while ‘Here is it’ reveals the blues inflected side to the group’s sound. Mark this down as a the perfect accompaniment to those long, hot summer days and evenings that we are promised are on the way.

Follow up to the excellent ‘Let’s Get Out Of This Country’ and once again working with producer Jari Haapalainen. This is Tracyanne Campbell coming up with some of her strongest songs to date, sometimes dark (Away With Murder) and often, like ‘Careless Love’, relationship based but always delivered in that special Camera Obscura way. I love it, this band so deserve to be huge.